


We Didn't Ask For This

by VelvetRose529



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Angst, Depression, Drama, Family Drama, Time Travel, slight depression
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-12
Updated: 2017-08-24
Packaged: 2018-12-01 09:05:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11483121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VelvetRose529/pseuds/VelvetRose529
Summary: They were just living their lives, and some guy with a god complex created some seals. All of a sudden three 'ordinary' lives were thrown off course, and they were forced to come to terms with pasts they weren't involved in. And now, they just want to go home. Hopefully they can do it while impacting as little as possible in the process. But that's easier said then done.They just want to make sure their future is intact when they return.





	1. Who Put That There?

Hitomi sat with her legs pulled against her chest. She hated today, even though it was supposed to be happy. She heard a sound at her bedroom door, and looked up to see her Aunt Hinata peering into the room. She looked back down at her feet and spoke softly.

“I’m fine, you don’t have to watch me.”

_Says the girl living with her aunt despite having inherited an apartment above a weapons shop._

“I know you aren’t fine.”

“Hitomi! Happy birthday!” She saw Himawari and Boruto grinning at her from their mother’s legs. Hinata looked down and sighed at her children. She hadn’t told them not to bother Hitomi yet but she’d hoped they wouldn’t follow her. Hitomi forced a smile at the youngsters and motioned for them to come in. They dog piled on top of their (distant) cousin and grinned at their mom.\

“Come _on_ mom!” Hitomi motioned for her Aunt to join them and she did. “Is dad coming home early for Hitomi’s birthday?”

“I don’t think so, Boruto. Your father is very busy. But Aunt Sakura and Sarada offered to come by.” Hitomi started to protest but of course her family would be having none of that.

“You don’t have to-”

“I want to. And so do they.”

“Does Sarada’s dad not want to come?”

“Sakura didn’t want to worry too much about an invite for him in case he wasn’t here, but I told them he’s welcome if he is. He may or may not come.”

“Alright.” Boruto hoped he would, Sasuke had been training him but had had to leave on a mission and Boruto wanted to show how far he’d progressed since he’d last seen his mentor. Hitomi really thought this was too much work, but she knew it was too late to talk her aunt out of it. She was honestly pretty sure this had been planned weeks ago (If a certain Sasuke Uchiha’s invite was any indication).

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Hitomi had a nearly full table for her birthday dinner. As it turned out, even Sasuke had shown up, which somewhat shocked her. She really had next to no relationship with him, just Sakura and Sarada. She had gotten to know Sarada pretty well, and Sakura was teaching her medical ninjutsu (she had inherited her father’s chakra control). But Sasuke? She barely knew him. Although, any time she saw him over the past year she noticed he would give her a… Sad look. At least until he realized she was looking at him. Then he’d put on the same fake smile that everyone else gave her. It drove the girl nuts, honestly. As Hinata had predicted, Naruto wasn’t there, but Hitomi really didn’t mind.

She didn’t need a pity attendance from the Hokage for the pity dinner hosted by his wife.

When dinner was over, Hitomi politely excused herself, and walked outside. She went decently far away before continuing, she really didn’t need anyone hearing what she was about to do. She took a deep breath and let out a loud, frustrated, yell. Because this wasn’t fair, nothing was fair! This time last year, at exactly 5:15 to be precise, her mother had died, and it just wasn’t fair. She’d just finished yelling when she heard a voice behind her and had to fight the urge to jump in surprise.

“Does it help?”

“S-Sasuke.” Sasuke Uchiha was standing there and looking at her. And she had just called him by his first name without anything else attached to it. She was already mentally berating herself for her screw up when he responded.

“That would be my name.” Not even commenting on the fact that she referred to him by his first name and had forgotten an honorific.

“I- Why are you-” She really should have taken that moment to apologize, but alas she did not. And he still wasn’t going to be bringing it up apparently, so she figured she was off the hook. She chalked it up to it being her birthday and being in mourning at the same time, he definitely knew what today was after all.

“Why am I out here?” Hitomi nodded. “Thought I’d see where the guest of honor ran off to. Pretty sure Hinata made cake.” She almost smiled at the comment, it definitely wasn’t what she was expecting from him.

“Probably chocolate.” He raised an eyebrow and just sort of looked at her, as if he wasn’t entirely sure what to say. But he eventually found something.

“Do you not like chocolate?”

“It’s my favorite.” There was silence for a minute before Sasuke got closer to her. Not uncomfortably close mind you… Just close. Enough to attempt a bit of a connection, and she had a feeling things were about to get emotional. At least… Somewhat. This was _not_ the Sasuke Uchiha she had heard about from her mother.

“Look… I get it.”

“Hm?”

“You went to school. You know about the Uchiha Massacre.”

“Yeah.”

“So… I know what it feels like. The feeling of not having anyone left. But that’s not the case anymore. And Hinata is trying really hard to make sure you don’t feel like that.”

“I get that. She’s not failing or anything it’s just… It’s the anniversary of her death. I feel like we shouldn’t be celebrating. You know?”

“Do you think your mother would have wanted you to stop celebrating?” Hitomi thought about it for a moment before shaking her head no. “Take my advice. Celebrate.” Hitomi nodded. And after a couple of minutes (in which both she and Sasuke tried the cathartic yelling thing, it was a little weird) they went inside.

The cake _was_ chocolate.

And it was delicious.

The next day, Hitomi was on one of Konoha’s many training grounds practicing with her Byakugan when she noticed two people behind her. She turned, deactivating the doujutsu, and faced Boruto and Sarada. She raised an eyebrow and moved towards them, confused.

“Hey, Hitomi-chan.”

“What are you two doing here?”

“Uncle Sasuke said he won’t be able to train me until later.” Boruto seemed to be hiding some slight bitterness about that fact.

“Yeah, Papa’s busy and Mitsuki’s sick, which I didn’t even think was _possible_ , so we don’t have anything to do today. So we thought maybe we could train with you.”

“Well… I mean obviously you can but it’s not like I can teach you much.”

“What about a mock battle? Us against you?” Hitomi figured it really couldn’t hurt. She had a few years on them, it was fair enough.

“That’s not a bad idea. Let’s do it.” In only a few minutes the three shinobi were in a standard fighting formation. “And… Start.”

Right off the bat, Boruto created shadow clones, and Hitomi shook her head. She was quick to throw shurikan to dispel them. Shadow clones were useful for close range attacks, but when your opponent was trained in long range and weapons, they could be nearly useless. She wouldn’t be taking on Lord Seventh any time soon, he had way too many, but Boruto had only managed four clones.

It just wasn’t enough.

However, the two genin soon figured out a way to push her back, move them between training grounds. They countered her weapons with their own, and Sarada _was_ quite good at shurikan jutsu. But it was only about fifteen minutes into the fight when she all of a sudden couldn’t move. She looked at Sarada and Boruto, neither of them looked like they were doing anything to cause it.

Then she felt a tugging sensation and soon she was on her hands and knees. She looked down and realized she was on a seal of some kind.

And it was taking her chakra.

She looked up at her friends, who were staring at her with concern, the mock battle having ceased. They ran towards her, and before she could stop them they were inside the seal with her. It was almost painful, having her chakra ripped out of her. But she refused to show it, she needed to see how Boruto and Sarada were doing.

And it didn’t look like they were doing well.

She could feel herself slipping into unconsciousness, and her last thought was:

_Sasuke and Sakura Uchiha and Lord Seventh are going to kill me if I survive this._

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Team Gai didn’t get to train together much anymore.

With all of them being chunin, it was much more difficult to arrange times to train together. As they were often all on missions, either together or separately. So when they all had a day off, and Tenten had just gotten in very early in the morning from a mission, they agreed to meet at a later than usual training time so they could see each other.

Neji and Lee were the first ones to the training ground, or at least they thought they were. The moment they arrived, they noticed three unconscious bodies in the middle of the training area. The two young men approached cautiously, not sure what to make of this yet. And they were somewhat glad they had. Because all three of the people had Konoha forehead protectors but they didn’t recognize any of them. So Neji immediately used his Byakugan on them.

“Ah-”

“What?” Lee was attempting to place the sound that had come out of his teammates mouth but couldn’t quite do it.

“They are almost entirely depleted of their chakra.” That was concerning, complete chakra depletion could kill someone if left untreated and it seemed like the three of them were hanging on by a thread.

“What should we do?”

“We should get the Hokage.” Either they couldn’t be trusted and should be taken to intelligence once they’d been seen by a medic or they could be trusted and simply needed immediate medical attention, either way Lady Tsunade should be involved. And it was likely they would still be getting medical attention regardless of their status.

“I shall get Lady Tsunade.” Neji didn’t even get to respond before Lee was off. And just after he left, he heard a voice behind him.

“Where is Lee going?”

“Lady Tsunade…”

“Why? What’s going on? And who are they?”

“No idea, we found them like this. Why don’t you help me try to identify them?” Tenten nodded, and approached the older girl while Neji approached the only male in the group of unconscious young people. The two of them checked their vitals, but were unable to identify any of them. Though the boy did look look scarily like Naruto. But there was nothing else about them to help. There was still no sign of Lee or the Hokage and Tenten looked up at Neji.

“Neji- I just… About last week-”

“We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

“I know we don’t _have_ to-”

“I don’t regret it.”

“I- Really? I mean… I left right after for that mission-”

“Really. Don’t worry about it.” Neji was not a… Mushy person. He cared for Tenten, in a way that he found he didn’t care for others, but there was currently no reason to put anything else on that right now. Especially not when there was a chance they were about to watch three people die. But before the conversation could continue they heard people approaching.

“This way, Lady Tsunade.” They were soon joined by the Hokage, Shizune, Sakura, and Lee. Shizune and Sakura approached the two younger people and Tsunade went to the older one. Tenten and Neji filled the medics in on what they’d observed already, and Tsunade wanted to do a few more checks before taking them to the hospital. But the moment she checked the older girl’s eyes she made a noise of shock.

“Have Hiashi Hyuga meet me at the hospital.” She was lifting the girl up as she spoke, and Neji wasn’t sure what to make of her words. “Immediately.” It took only another moment before he was heading towards the Hyuga compound, leaving Tenten and Lee behind.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Neji stood with Tenten and Lee as he waited for news on what was going to happen with the three new people. He was also, admittedly, extremely curious as to why his Uncle’s presence was necessary. So they stood outside the room of the oldest girl (all three had been placed in separate rooms in case they were a threat) and waiting to hear something. When the door opened all three shinobi’s backs straightened.

“You’ll let me know when she wakes up?”

“Of course, Hiashi-San. I assure you I will. It will be a few days, you can relax until then.” There was a silent nod from the older Hyuga and he walked away. Neji, however, did not follow his uncle.

“What’s going on, Tsunade-Sama?”

“It’s not something you need to worry about, Neji.”

“Well who are they?”

“We don’t know.”

“Why did you need my uncle?”

Neji didn’t see his uncle turn around and share a look with Lady Tsunade. He couldn’t explain his interest in the strangers, he hadn’t even spoken to them, but he was curious. But he told himself that if he didn’t get an answer to this question he’d stop asking. But the look that Hiashi gave Tsunade meant he wasn’t worried about what information he gave this group.

So Lady Tsunade started talking.

“The girl, the older one, has the Byakugan.” Neji took a step back, that didn’t make any sense. He didn’t recognize her at all. “And no seal on her forehead.” Neji had no idea what to do with that information. She wasn’t a main family member. And she wasn’t a branch family member either.

She was an anomaly.

“She won’t be waking up for a couple of days, so don’t worry about it for now. I’ll contact your uncle when she does, when they all do, he’s offered to take care of them until we can figure out what’s going on. We decided it would be safest.” The group nodded. “So for now… Why don’t you three just return to your lives as normal. The fewer people who get involved the better.”

“Yes, Tsunade-Sama.”

So the three of them returned to their planned training session. But they couldn’t help but think about the three strangers. There was just something about them…


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, only comment I want to make here is I gave Tenten a last name. Not a huge deal, just needed her to have something. Seriously, Kishi, why haven't you given her one yet?

Boruto was the first to wake up.

When his eyes opened all he saw was white at first. But as his eyes adjusted he realized he was in the hospital. He could only assume he was at the hospital in Konoha if what he remembered of the sparring incident was true. He sat up a little, struggling only slightly, and looked around. Hopefully Aunt Sakura was here, or maybe his mom. He didn’t like the idea of being alone for too long right now. Especially as he was trying to make sense of the weird seal on the ground that had landed him here.

So when he turned and saw his grandfather, to say he was a little taken aback would be an understatement. He’d never had his grandfather waiting for him at the hospital before, it didn’t make any sense. And there was something about this that just seemed off but he couldn’t put his finger on what it was.

“…Grandpa?” Hiashi raised his eyebrow at him and Boruto was even more confused. It almost seemed like he didn’t know who Boruto was and that didn’t make any sense either. It was actually a little concerning if Boruto was being completely honest with himself. He sat up a little more. “Grandpa, what are you doing here? Where’s mom?” As he spoke, he started to notice that Grandpa Hiashi almost looked… Younger.

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about. Or who your mother is.” Before Boruto could respond there was a single knock at the door. Hiashi turned to face it and spoke. “Come in.” The door opened and Boruto watched as someone’s head poked in. A face he had only seen in pictures. His eyes widened and he backed away on the bed, until he fell backwards off of it, causing the two other men in the room to leap forward in response.

“Are you alright?” Neji wasn’t sure what exactly he’d walked in on but he hoped the boy was alright, if nothing else because he was curious as to who the strangers were and why they were unconscious on a training ground.

“What happened?”

“I don’t… I don’t know. What’s going on?” Hiashi and Neji were slowly helping Boruto back onto the hospital bed, and Boruto was trying his hardest to keep himself from freaking out. Because one of the people helping him was very much dead as far as he was aware. And he was concerned that if one of his companions saw him she would lose her mind.

“That’s what we’d like to know.”

“I think I should… Speak with the Hokage… First.” Hiashi and Neji couldn’t really fault the boy, and the fact that he wanted to speak to the Hokage did make them feel a little better. There was something about him that they just wanted to trust, so they didn’t question his desire to see the Hokage like they would from a known criminal. So Hiashi turned to Neji, and asked him to get Lady Tsunade for them.

And now they had to wait.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sarada was the next one of the group to wake up.

When her eyes opened, and she looked around, there was no one to greet her. She was disoriented, and a little annoyed. Surely her mother wouldn’t have left her alone? Sure her dad was home but that just meant it was more likely they would both be here. Unless she’d been out for a few days, in which case she wouldn’t be too surprised. But she wanted to get some answers, and she very obviously wouldn’t be finding them in an empty hospital room. So she forced herself to sit up and get out of bed. She fell to her knees when her feet hit the floor but she got back up, and got herself to the wall, pulling herself out of the room.

She was going to find her parents.

After leaving her room, she noticed two people standing in the hallway not too far away. The fact that they were blurs made her realize she’d left her glasses in the room, but she pushed on. If she got close enough she would see them better. But when she got close enough to make out the faces she wasn’t entirely sure she wasn’t dreaming. The younger of the two turned to face her and she took a step back.

“Uncle.” Then the older of the two faced her as well.

“Um… Hi.” Something was wrong here. Something was very wrong here. Boruto’s grandfather looked too young, and wasn’t that Hitomi’s dad? “Don’t suppose you know where Boruto is?” The two shared a look.

“Is that the boy we found with you? The blonde kid?” Sarada nodded. “He’s in there, talking with Lady Tsunade.” Her eyes widened slightly, before turning and going to the room. She was surprised neither of them stopped her, she wasn’t exactly speedy at the moment, and wouldn’t they at least question her beelining to the room with the Hokage?

“Boruto-” She just needed to say something, being in the room with her mother’s teacher at a time where, if she was guessing, was likely before she was born, was kind of freaky. Said teacher then turned and faced her. She didn’t seem annoyed, but she did seem concerned, presumably at Sarada’s current health situation, which was somewhere around ‘about to fall over again but you didn’t see me fall the first time so just about to fall over’.

“And you are?” It took her a moment to find her voice, but when she did, what came out was barely above a whisper. She chalked it up to the ridiculousness of this whole situation, and the fact that in her head she was attempting to find a logical explanation for what was going on here. Like a genjutsu or something.

“Sarada.”

“Come over here, Sarada, you like you’re about to fall over.” She nodded and joined Boruto on the bed. She sat at the foot of his bed and looked over at Lady Tsunade. She wasn’t entirely sure what she was supposed to say right now, but it was weirdly quiet in here so she needed to say _something_

“So… What did I miss?”

“Lady Tsunade is deciding whether or not she wants to believe me.” She turned to face Boruto, he hadn’t actually told her, had he? She could only assume he came to the same conclusion she did, even if it was almost certifiably insane to think so. And if that was the case why, in gods name, would he have said something? Did he want to be marked as crazy and locked away before they could figure out how go home?

“What did you tell her?”

“The truth!” She ignored the crazy part that was running through her head, if this was what happened then there was more at stake then their perceived sanity. They could screw everything up, make it so they no longer existed, if this was really happening right now.

“Do you know how dangerous that could be?”

“Well do you know how dangerous it is if we stay here?” Boruto did have a bit of point there, but Sarada wasn’t sure if it was a huge one. What was Lady Tsunade going to be able to do about their potential trip through time?

“Can you two stop bickering for a minute!?” The fifth Hokage was rubbing her temples, and the two preteens stopped talking. “Let me hear it again, from the beginning.” The two looked at each other, and this time Sarada started.

“We were sparring with Hitomi. The other person we came here with. Dad was busy and wouldn’t train with us so we asked her if _she_ would, and she said yes. It wasn’t a long spar, it got cut off.” Sarada was careful to brush by the dad part quickly, she didn’t need anyone asking who her dad was. Or any of their parents really.

“Yeah, she was on the ground and we didn’t do it, it was a little weird.”

“In hindsight, following her wasn’t really the smartest decision we’ve made.”

“Next thing we know, we’re all on the ground and some seal underneath us is sucking out all our chakra.” Sarada muttered the word ‘painfully’ under her breath following Boruto’s statement. It had been a painful experience, at least she knew it had been for her. And from what she could tell, her friends hadn’t really been enjoying the sensation either. Then she continued where he left off.

“Boruto passed out first. I think I passed out before Hitomi but I’m not sure. Next thing I know we’re here.”

“In the past?” Boruto was the first to answer.

“Well _I_ think so.”

“I think so too.” Boruto almost seemed shocked that Sarada agreed with him, and she made a face at her teammate. The two of them had just had a conversation where she heavily implied it was what she thought, she wasn’t sure how much more clear she could get here. “Look… We swear we aren’t here to hurt anyone, this was all an accident. Please don’t lock us up or anything like that.” Lady Tsunade laughed.

“We weren’t going to lock you up.” The two young shinobi looked relieved, but then they looked confused. They were happy to know they wouldn’t be getting locked up, but now they had no idea what the plan was for them.

“Then… What _are_ you gonna do with us?”

“You’re staying at the Hyuga compound until we can get you home.” The response was… Explosive.

“What!?”

“I don’t think that’s a very good idea-”

“It’s a terrible idea-”

“There has to be somewhere else we can go-”

“ _Please_ , Lady Tsunade-”

“What’s the problem with staying there?” The two shared a look before turning to the former/current Hokage. They didn’t want to share information they shouldn’t, didn’t want to cross any unspoken lines, but they didn’t know what the line even _was_. They just had to assume everything was off limits. At least… For now.

“If we tell you… We’d be giving you future knowledge.” Lady Tsunade became thoughtful for a minute. As if deciding whether or not it would be worth it to have them tell her of the future. It wasn’t like they’d have winning lottery numbers, but she couldn’t go into this blindly. And she would be if she didn’t know anything about the two, well three, youngsters currently residing in Konoha hospital.

“I can’t expect you to keep everything a secret from everyone. You’d explode.” They both couldn’t keep from laughing a little before continuing.

“It involves our parents identities.”

“I’m going to allow it. I need to understand you two… Well, you _three_ , better to help me make more detailed decisions. But for right now I will be the only one privy to the knowledge you’re sharing, is that understood?” They both nodded. “Alright then. Continue.”

“Well… My full name is Boruto Uzumaki.”

“I’m Sarada Uchiha. And Hitomi’s surname is Hyuga.” Tsunade went from looking semi-shocked to not so shocked fairly quickly.

“I was assuming that last one, I saw the Byakugan, she’s the reason I even got Hiashi involved. But who are your parents?”

“Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Hyuga.” That wasn’t entirely shocking to Lady Tsunade. A little because the orange clad genin still hadn’t quite figured out that the older Hyuga girl was smitten over him, but surely he’d get his head out of his ass someday. It seemed someday was going to happen. That and, well, the boy looked so much like Naruto it couldn’t very well be a coincidence.

“Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno. And Hitomi’s are Neji Hyuga and Tenten Saito.” The kids definitely didn’t miss the look that came over Lady Tsunade’s face when Sasuke’s name was mentioned. Neither of them really understood why it occurred though, and she immediately switched the topic over to Hitomi’s parentage, so they wouldn’t be getting an answer anytime soon either.

“Which is why you don’t want to stay there.” They nodded.

“Exactly. We’d both be fine, I mean Hiashi is Boruto’s grandfather but they aren’t exactly close. But Neji-” Lady Tsunade cut her off.

“I understand.” Sarada shook her head, she wasn’t sure she’d wanted to tell Lady Tsunade this much but if she was going to start making assumptions… Well she wouldn’t really have a choice. She would have to tell her the truth.

“You don’t.”

“You just said-”

“Neji’s dead in our time. Before Hitomi was even born.” The look on Lady Tsunade’s face… It was indescribable. She almost looked pained, but in a way Sarada wasn’t sure she’d ever seen before. “It would be too painful for her, to be living with the father she never had. Please… Don’t do that to her.” The Hokage sighed.

“I’m sorry, I really _don’t_ want to do that to her. But it’s not up to me. Hiashi is the one who requested it and if we were going to try and change his mind we’d have to tell him too, and I don’t think we can do that yet.” Sarada and Boruto both looked as if Lady Tsunade had just kicked a litter of newborn puppies. But they didn’t say anything, they knew there was nothing they could do.

“So… How long do we have to stay in the hospital?”

“As of right now you’re both still too weak to leave. I expect you’ll be well enough by morning though. As soon as you’re well enough you can leave into Hiashi’s care.” Sarada furrowed her brow, she didn’t like leaving Hitomi alone in the hospital. But she didn’t want to take her room away from a patient who may need it more than she did. Boruto on the other hand… Well he didn’t have the same concerns Sarada did.

“But what about Hitomi?”  


“She’s still unconscious. I assure you, when she wakes up and is well enough she’ll join you.” They both still thought that was a bad idea but until they could tell Hiashi why the girl would be pained living in the same place as Neji, they were stuck. So they simply nodded and Sarada stood up, wanting to go back to her room, but she crumpled to the ground once more. Tsunade helped her up and brought her outside.

“Is she alright?” Sarada couldn’t understand Neji’s concern with them. She didn’t know the man, he was just a face in a photograph to her, but she’d heard stories. And from what she’d herd he was perfect picture of shinobi calmness. He wasn’t one to show emotion if he didn’t have to. And he certainly didn’t attempt to create unnecessary bonds.

At least, that’s what her mother had said in the few times she’d asked about Hitomi’s late father.

“She’s just weak. I need to get her back to her own room.”

“I can bring her.” Sarada was passed off to Neji rather quickly and she shot a look at Lady Tsunade’s retreating figure. She was annoyed with her mother’s mentor but she couldn’t very well show it. And besides, she was more intrigued by the sudden character change in her friend’s father. Unless her mother had gotten his personality way wrong, something was up with him. And Sarada was determined to figure out what it was before Hitomi woke up.

Besides, they were stuck here. And Sarada was just going to have to make the best of it. So why not give herself a project?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I know the chapters have been short so far, and a little dull, but hopefully they'll pick up soon. Just needed to get them there, soon we'll have PLOT. Isn't that exciting? :p


	3. Realizations

Boruto was convinced he’d learned more about the Hyuga Clan and the Hyuga Compound in two hours than he had in twelve years of living as a pseudo-Hyuga.. He and Sarada were being shown around the estate by Hiashi Hyuga and he felt compelled to give as much history as he could without giving away too many trade secrets (Read- NO trade secrets). Which he didn’t seem to be struggling with in the slightest. Boruto turned to Sarada and found she was already looking at him. She leaned in closely before speaking.

“How often do you think he does this?” Boruto simply shrugged, not wanting to draw too much attention to himself or Sarada. They finished at a set of bedrooms, three in a row to be precise. They were each pointed to their own room, and the two Genin parted ways, just to get themselves changed.

Hiashi had found a way to gather some basic clothing so that they could blend better while shopping. Sarada really just needed a new tunic without the Uchiha fan and Boruto really didn’t _need_ to change anything, but wanted to while he was in a new time. He wasn’t worried he’d be figured out, since he didn’t wear orange. He just figured it would be fun to try a different style, and maybe they could get his hair less spiky to better hide his identity.

Sarada didn't know how lucky she had it with her average looking hair.

He pulled on the provided clothes, a simple white top and black pants, along with his own sandals, and left the room. He just had to wait for Sarada, who had come back in her hospital clothes and had her own stuffed in a bag. She couldn’t walk back here with her father’s family’s symbol displayed on her back. That would have raised a number of questions that neither of them was prepared to answer right now, including from the very guy walking them home.

Because Hiashi was currently still in the dark at the order of the Hokage.

Lady Tsunade had just told Hiashi that the two kids should be taken shopping and he said yes because you don’t say no to the Hokage. She then followed it up by saying that Hitomi will likely want to go shopping when she wakes up and to take that into consideration. So he agreed that there would be another shopping trip once she’d arrived at the compound. A decision that Boruto and Sarada were still arguing vehemently.

Boruto left his room, and smacked right into Neji. He backed up, apologizing profusely, but Neji wasn’t even fazed. Boruto watched as his uncle shrugged it off, and leaned against the wall. Was… Was _Neji_ taking them shopping? He glanced over at Sarada’s room, as if trying to make her come out here with just his thoughts alone. He was not prepared to spend quality time with his dead uncle.

“So… I thought Hiashi-Sama was taking us shopping?” Awkward silence potentially made even more awkward? Check.

“He asked me to take you instead.”

“Oh… Okay.”

To say the silence following that statement was more awkward than the first one… Well that would be a slight understatement. Though Boruto had a feeling that the awkward feeling was one-sided. He could hardly believe he was standing next his uncle, who was decidedly deceased in his time. He only knew stories, and stories were biased. He was painted as one of the war heroes of the Fourth Shinobi for saving not only his father, but his mother as well. But the question now was… How long until that happened?

When had they shown up?

Boruto was going to have to keep an eye out for a newspaper or something. Anything that would tell him the date, because he had to know. All he had to see was todays date, then he could count down how long they had until the war. And hopefully they’d get back to their time before then. As much as he would love to see everything and maybe save a few lives… He didn’t want to jeopardize his very existence. Altering time wasn't a practical plan, and he was going to avoid it at all costs.

Sarada came out of her room about a minute later and gave them both a grin that thankfully, shattered the awkward silence.

“Who’s ready to go shopping?”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sarada had a hunch that Boruto had the same ulterior motive she did. Or at least… One of the same ulterior motives. She didn’t _just_ want to make sure she got a new top that was missing her father’s clan symbol, nor did she just want to see what it was that was making Neji Hyuga care about them, she needed a chance to figure out what day it was. She needed a chance to figure when they’d come back to. And leaving the Hyuga Compound was the only way to find out, because no one else was supposed to know they were from the future. They couldn’t very well just ask Neji “By the way what day is it, we’re from the future and desperately need this information so we don’t get sucked into a war”.

Something told them that wouldn’t go over very well.

The two of them kept glancing at stands, waiting for something with a date on it to pass them. It wasn’t until after they’d procured new clothes that it happened. They went to a clothing store that specialized in clothing for shinobi, and Sarada managed to find a top similar to her old one, sans the Uchiha Fan. This one, unlike her other one, was blue.

In fact, the same blue that her father wore in his genin days, but she didn’t even notice that when she picked it out.

As for Boruto, he found an outfit not entirely different from his own, but in a different color scheme. Choosing this time to go red with black accents. He even, somewhat begrudgingly, pulled his hair back into a low ponytail so that he wouldn’t look so much like his father.

The whiskers… Well they were just going to have to hope that they would just be ignored by everyone.

And after all of the clothing shopping was done, they were passing by a store and Neji said he needed to pick up something from it and asked if they wouldn’t mind if they stopped. They both shook their heads and followed him into the store. They were both hoping they would find something here that would tell them how long they had to get home. And, as luck would have it, while they were following him, they noticed a newspaper stand. Sarada picked it up and just sort of stared at the date for a moment.

“What is it?” Boruto was waiting for Sarada to tell him (her body was blocking him from seeing the stack of papers). But his friend remained silent. “Sarada-chan, what does it say?” Silently, she held out the paper, and he looked at the date. And Boruto nearly fainted when he saw what it said.

“You mean it’s actually…”

“Yep.”

“We have four weeks…”

“Uh huh.”

“One month…”

“Yeah.”

Silence followed the exchange, until Neji showed up behind them holding a bag. Whatever he’d needed, he’d gotten. Sarada quickly put the newspaper down and the two young Genin followed Neji out of the store and back to the compound in complete silence. Neither of them knew what to say. How to respond to this. They had one month. One month to the day before the war started. And no one here even knew about it.

And Hitomi was still unconscious in the hospital.

They were _so_ beyond screwed.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Hitomi’s eyes opened slowly, and had to take a moment to adjust to the lighting. Within five minutes she was able to figure out that she was in a hospital, but that was about all she could gather. There was no one here, no indication that she was at the hospital at home. So where was she? She sat up, and got out of bed slowly, pressing her hand to the mattress for support as she stood. She kept her hands against something as she moved across the room towards the door.

If she wasn’t home, then home was her next stop.

But before she could leave, her door opened. In walked a woman who looked a lot like a younger version of the Shizune she knew. Was this some kind of genjutsu? She moved her hand to make a seal in an attempt to dispel it but her wrists were grabbed gently and she was moved back to the bed by the Shizune look-alike.

“It’s best if you stay in bed for now, you’re still weak.” She couldn’t really argue but at the same time… This just wasn’t right. Everything in her, every sense was telling her that this was all wrong. And she needed to get out of here. But that would be difficult if she was already having trouble just standing up.

“What’s going on? Where am I?”

“The hospital in Konohagakure.” That… That couldn’t be right. Sure it made sense because this was obviously Shizune, but this wasn’t _her_ Shizune! Something was terribly terribly wrong and she needed to get to the bottom of it.

“That’s not possible.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean it’s not possible.” She wasn’t about to say why it wasn’t possible. There was only one theory circulating in her head but it was just… There was just no way. She couldn’t possibly… That was crazy. Completely crazy.

“Let me get Lady Tsunade.”

For once, that was a name Hitomi _didn’t_ want to hear. Because if she was getting Tsunade… That meant that Lady Tsunade was probably the Hokage. And if Tsunade was the Hokage that meant her theory was correct. And she didn’t want it to be correct. She didn’t want to be here, wasn’t supposed to be here. And just as she started trying to figure out a way to go home the door opened again.

And there was Lady Tsunade.

“Glad to see you’re finally awake.” Given the way Lady Tsunade said that… Well she couldn’t help but be curious as to how long she’d been out for. It didn’t hurt to ask.

“How long was I out?”

“A little over a week.” Hitomi’s eyes widened, she couldn’t believe she’d been unconscious that long. It certainly didn’t feel like it. She’d been expecting a few days at most, but a little over a week? She could hardly remember what happened to her, but what could have caused her to be unconscious for that long? But before she could ask, another, more pressing question, came to mind.

“Where are Boruto and Sarada? They’re the two other people I should have been with.” She got a smile from Lady Tsunade before she got a response, so she could only assume she was about to hear good news.

“We know who they are, and they’re currently at the Hyuga compound, which you will be joining them at soon enough.” She had to take a moment to process that. The Hyuga compound. She would be living at the Hyuga Compound? She really wasn’t sure she wanted to do that. But arguing with Lady Tsunade right out of the gate wasn’t really going to do her any favors so she kept her mouth shut.

“When will I be joining them?”

“Tomorrow morning, _if_ you let yourself rest until then.” She nodded, and ignored the part of her brain that wanted to to ignore those instructions to avoid ending up at the compound. Her memories of the place were basically all sad looks from her sort-of-grandfather as he taught her the gentle fist.

Something about her father’s memory and whatnot.

“I know where you’re from.”

“Huh?”

“I know you’re from the future.”

“… What.”

“You’re friend told me, I’m the only one that knows. And we’re going to try and keep it that way.” She simply nodded in response. She didn’t have it in her to have a full blown conversation about this right now, she was exhausted.

So after Tsunade left she rolled over and pulled the covers over her head. Would she have to see all of them? Would her mother be around? Was her father alive? She was assuming yes but she didn’t have a firm grasp on when it was she’d ended up. But if her memory of history lessons at the academy was correct it was highly likely that Neji Hyuga was still alive and at some point during this literal blast to the past she would have to face him.

There was no amount of training in the world that could prepare her for that.

When she woke up the next morning she had a visitor. Actually, to be more precise, she had three visitors. In front of her was her two time traveling companions who seemed to be blocking visitor number three. She wrapped her arms around Boruto and Sarada, who returned the hug quickly. But before they could pull away she had a clear view of the third, well fourth, occupant of the room.

And she pulled back so fast she should have gotten whiplash.

“We didn’t really have a chance to warn you…”

“We tried to get her to change her mind-”

“But it wasn’t up to her-”

“It’s all grandpa’s fault-”

“It’s fine.”

The whispered conversation was over quickly, she wanted to avoid letting their ‘companion' in on her parentage. If nothing else because she didn’t want to deal with the consequences of that action. On either side.

So instead, she sat up more, and got out of bed. Fully this time. It took her a moment to get her bearings, her legs had gotten quite used to their sedentary position, but soon she was up and walking. She grabbed her clothes from the nightstand next to her, and glanced over at Boruto and Neji, who got the hint quickly and left the room so it was just Sarada and Hitomi left.

“What did I miss?” Sarada didn’t waste any time in letting her in on what they’d found out. She needed to know and she needed to know now.

“We have less than a month until the war.” That stopped Hitomi in her tracks. She was halfway into pulling on her shirt when the news was given and she just sort of stood there, looking at Sarada while her shirt was halfway over her head. Sarada couldn’t even find it in herself to laugh at the scene, it was too serious of a discussion.

“How long?”

“Three weeks and five days exactly.” Hitomi finished pulling on her shirt, and had moved on to her pants.

“You’ve got to be kidding.” sarada shook her head, and Hitomi was not liking where this conversation was going. Of course they had to be sent back to right before her father was going to die. Not to mention Sarada’s father wasn’t exactly in his right mind until the war and if they were leaving the village there was a chance they would run into him. Hell she’d already found her dad, and her mom was probably in the village as well.

“I wish I was.”

“So we have until then to figure out how we got here.”

“And how to get home.” Hitomi nodded, the two of them had always been able to finish each other’s sentences. They'd always been close, probably because Tenten and Sakura had sort of bonded while Sasuke was gone. Two fatherless children… The four of them just sort of just gravitated toward each other.

“Not to mention the help we’ll lose once the war is declared.”

“They might even recruit us.” Hitomi stopped her there. There was no way Sarada and Boruto would be recruited for the front lines of the battlefield.

“You mean recruit me.” That took Sarada by surprise. She was about to say something when Hitomi continued. “I’m a Chunin, you’re still a Genin. No doubt they would consider you too young and inexperienced to be on on the battlefield. Most of the younger Genin were in charge of protecting the village and leading everyone to safety during the war, they weren’t on the front lines.”

“But that still means we have less time than we thought.” Sarada wasn’t even going to argue the point, it made sense. But they didn’t want Hitomi to get stuck fighting, the risk of deviating from their timeline was great enough as it was without a new skilled Byakugan user on the battlefield that wasn’t there before.

And neither of them wanted Hitomi to watch her father die.

“So our first order of business is to try and locate another seal, but we may have to leave the village for that.” Which was a truth they were going to have to face sooner or later, but considering how little time they had…

“How are we going to convince Lady Tsunade to let us leave?” Hitomi looked thoughtful for a minute as she made sure she’d gathered all of her belongings. She was considering Sarada’s question.

“I think… We’re going to have to be cleared for active duty first.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, chapter three! I told you, plot is happening soon. Hitomi is so not ready to be face to face with Neji, but hey life's not always fair. I have some ideas where I want this story to go but we'll see what happens. I'm going to have to go through this section of Shippuden again, the timeline is weird, but I think I've got it correct enough for my purposes.


	4. In Which Everything Starts Going to Shit

Hitomi knew this was going to be hard.

Not just getting them on active duty so they could look for more of the seals that sent them there, but having to live with her dead father and being somewhere where she could run into her dead mother. The joys of time traveling. Being placed in situations no one should ever be placed in to, because someone decided to create some godforsaken seal that sent them to a time that wasn’t their own. And she was determined to fix that.

Somehow, trying to get on active duty wasn’t looking like it was going to be the harder of the two difficult things she had to deal with in all of this nonsense. Granted, Neji wasn’t currently there, had left later on the same day she’d left the hospital for a mission, so he wasn’t actually around right now, but it was still difficult knowing he was coming back. Difficult knowing she’d have to see him eventually when he returned. And the whole half a day she’d had to live with him was just stressful because just having him around was painful.

The guy was her father and he didn’t even know it.

She was heading out towards the Hokage’s office when she was stopped by Hiashi. She looked up at him, more concerned than she probably should be. Her Byakugan was no secret, it was likely that he just wanted to see what her knowledge of it really was. But she learned from him and Hinata, surely he would figure out he was involved in her training. Things would fall apart quickly if he found out the truth.

“Hiashi-Sama.” She gave a small respectful bow. No need to start off on the wrong foot, she couldn’t be certain of what he wanted until he told her.

“I need to test the abilities of your Byakugan.”

“Why?”

“To test your usefulness.”

“My usefulness isn’t your concern, it’s the Hokage’s. And I’m actually about to go see her. I figure my having the Byakugan is the reason I’m _here_ in the first place, but I don’t belong to you, so I don’t have any reason to prove anything to you. If you’ll excuse me.” She turned and left, not giving him another look. It wasn’t that she disliked her ‘grandfather’, it was just that… This one was only interested in her eyes. The one she knew was different. The one she knew was a doting grandfather, despite not seeing his grandkids all that often.

But there _was_ a reason her Aunt Hinata pretty much never returned to her childhood home.

And something told her this version of her grandfather was that reason.

She walked through the village alone, but with a purpose. Boruto and Sarada were training on one of the grounds, she told them she could do this alone. She would do this alone. She would get them on active duty, she would get them on a hunt for more seals. She would get them home no matter what it took.

And she wanted to do it alone to avoid the looks she was getting from the two youngsters.

Every time she saw Sarada and Boruto they gave her a pity look, a look she already knew way too well. She knew they felt bad that she got stuck at the Hyuga compound but she knew there was nothing they could really do about it. It was just an unfortunate circumstance. She hated the look before when adults were giving it to her, but now her friends were giving it too, and somehow that made it worse.

She was able to get away with her outfit from home. Her eyes were the only giveaway, as she didn’t have any clan symbols on her back or anything like that. It was essentially a mix of what her Aunt Sakura wore and what her mom wore. The top was styled like Aunt Sakura’s dress from her genin days, but the colors were inverted to match her moms style. She paired it with black pants and black ninja sandals, and her forehead protecter had black fabric as well. Her hair was often in pigtail braids, opting not to go for her mom’s twin bun style.

Sure there was always the possibility that someone could connect her to her mom or her Aunt Sakura, but she didn't think it would happen, honestly. It was likely enough of a blend with her own choice of style that no one would pick up on the similarities. Not without already suspecting something, which wasn’t likely to happen. Sarada and Boruto on the other hand… There were some serious similarities, with their father’s especially, that could out them if they weren’t careful. Not to mention Sarada was going to have to make sure no one saw her use her Sharingan.

And now that she thought about it Boruto was going to have to be cautious as well, since Sasuke had been working with Boruto on his Rasengan. As of right now only Naruto and Jiraiya (was he dead yet? Probably.) knew that jutsu. At least as far as she was aware. And that would raise some questions when you consider it with Boruto’s looks. Thankfully he’d ditched the spiky hair, but the whiskers were a tough one to explain away.

Hitomi enjoyed having time to herself. She wouldn’t classify herself as a loner, but walking on her own to the Hokage office was nice. Along with avoiding the looks, she’d asked Sarada to draw what she remembered of the seal that had sent them here so they could have an idea of what they were looking for when she got the chance. Thankfully, the girl had activated her Sharingan during the spar that got them here so that would likely help in getting the recreation as accurate as possible.

Before she could reach the office, she heard a large crashing noise. She turned instinctively, activating her Byakugan as she did so. It only took her about thirty seconds to figure out what was going on, and she nearly had a panic attack when she did. Because this… She should have known this was coming when she realized the village was still intact.

The Village was under attack.

Using her air palm, she blew back debris to keep it from hitting some civilians before helping them get to a safer place. Even though her knowledge of the Village’s safe spaces was from 16 years in the future, they still had the same ‘bunker’. The place where civilians hid during attacks on the Village. She remembered learning it hadn’t been changed since what was basically the beginning of time for their home. She aimed them in the direction of the place and told them there were likely to be Genin nearby guiding everyone inside.

She may not be an active Shinobi in this time but her battle instincts were kicking in.

She turned, trying to figure out what to do. If he remembered correctly pretty much every battle was going to end alright. Well… Rather not great but not terrible. While on one hand people died, on the other she was pretty sure there were some important things in these battles. At least there probably were, things didn’t really go to shit until the war and even then she only felt like they went to shit because the war was the reason she didn’t have a father in her time. She didn’t want to change anything too much. So she opted to help guide civilians and children to safety.

Which lasted all of about three minutes.

Her Byakugan was showing her white a bit of what was going on, but she couldn’t help but zone in on Kakashi-jiisan. He was definitely looking worse for the wear and it looked like the group wasn’t doing much better. They all looked somewhat ragged, and it was the closest battle to her current location. In only a few leaps she was close enough to the action to not need her Byakugan’s help. Just in time to see Chocho’s father running away from an attack and Kakashi-jiisan looking like he was about to pass out.

“Hey, freak!” The attacker turned towards the sudden noise. She wasn’t sure what caused her to draw all the attention to herself, but she had a sinking feeling she was going to regret the decision.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sarada and Boruto were training. Sarada had finished drawing what she could remember of the original seal that landed them in this mess, and was now training with her teammate. Better to stay ready for anything while Hitomi tried to make it so they could leave the Village. She'd only been out of the hospital for about three days but really she was working harder than they felt she should right now.

They were taking care of her while she was taking care of them.

“Ne, Sarada-chan.” The two were practicing hits on each other, just form without power, when Boruto started talking.

“Yeah?” Sarada grabbed at his wrist as it attempted to make contact with her upper arm and gripped it for a minute as she spoke. She wasn’t expecting the kind of talk that this sounded like it was going to be. But she let go as he started talking again.

“Did you notice how… Nice the Village looks?” She paused, she hadn’t considered the ‘look’ of the village when they’d gotten here. Had been more focused on exact dates in an attempt to figure out how long they had until the war.

“The Village always looks nice.”

“Not always. Remember what the books said? When the war started, the Leaf Village was still recovering from a home field attack. Someone, some group or whatever, got in and trashed the place, and it was only just being rebuilt when the war was declared.” Thinking back… He was right. She did remember this lesson, had brought it up with her mom. Had gotten some have told story involving lots of medical ninjutsu and saving Boruto’s mom. When she stated to try an find out what her dad had been doing the conversation had been shut down and that was the end of that. Her eyes narrowed slightly.

“What are you saying, Boruto?”

“I’m saying… I think we have more to worry about than just the war.”

“You think we’re going to witness another attack?”

“Or… Be in one…” That stopped her, and Boruto’s foot made contact with the side of her head. She fell to the ground as she lost her balance and put a hand to her head. Boruto didn’t even have to ask if she was okay, he could tell she was. At least… When it came to the physical injury. He held out a hand to help her up as she spoke.

“Well this just gets better and better, doesn’t it.”

“Of course it does.”

And that was when the sound of buildings being destroyed could be heard, and they knew their theory was correct.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay... I know this is terribly short. But I felt bad that this hadn't been updated in a while and the next chapter is going to be pretty action heavy and I am TERRIBLE at action scenes. So I thought I'd just give you a quick, short update so you know it's still being worked on. I wanted to give you more but alas, it was not meant to be yet. Also I saw Frozen the Musical today and it was fantastic. Just sayin.

**Author's Note:**

> Finally finished this first chapter. I'm a little obsessed with Time Travel so expect lots of fics like this one. All sorts of different time travel scenarios. I'm terrible. Just sayin.


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